[rlyndecker]

I was curious, my roommate says that the district "technically" is not following proper procedure for contract negotiations. This year is a complete "open" contract the old one expired etc. The DISTRICT emailed their first proposal to the entire staff AND then it is open for anyone to look at at the district office. It will be brought up at the next board meeting.

The union hasn't sent out their first offer or anything so I was curious about how these things work.

The district is being so generous- their offer is 1% on SALARY OR BENEFITS (so the most for anyone is ~$85/YEAR) and this is AFTER we are still down 2 1/2% from furlough days. The bonus- we go back to 180 student days AND 5 work days. So for me no matter what it's ~$60 for the year raise & I will still pay OVER $725 for 80% insurance (for me alone) and I get the privilege of working more days.

Someone please explain this to me!

Oh and they have over 18% in reserve when the requirement is 3%!

[SubMan]

They are probably trying to minimize any effect that the union might have with the contract by going directly to the members. It has been my experience that the school board presents it's offer to the union and the union counter offers. It's a back and forth dance that some times stretches out for years.

In this economy you might want to suck it up and be glad you have a job. In PA 20,000 teachers lost their jobs over the past two years. The district that I am furloughed from will be cutting additional jobs at the end of the school year.

The more money a district has in reserve (rainy day fund) the easier it is to get bonds for building projects.

[anna]

This is done all the time to teachers because teachers do not get to union meetings or show up to board meetings when they are called to do so. We are an easy bunch to take advantage of.

[teacherman]

Your board isn't doing anything "wrong" in the technical sense. They can negotiate in public if they want to, but I would say it is a bit underhanded. I don't know your board, but if my board did that I would say that they are trying to undermine the union. By giving you all their version of the facts, they create confusion if the union comes out and tells you something different.

Also, if the union doesn't give in, the board could turn around and tell you, hey you could have had this and this, but now because you waited we are only going to give you this.

I work in Chicago and we ultimately went on strike for 7 days in September. We ended up with a longer day and a longer year, but we got a 3% raise this year and 2% for the next two years. We preserved our lanes and steps and are not seeing any percent increases in our insurance rates. We did agree to sign on to a wellness program and there are definitely things we had to give up, but I feel like we held the line on several issues that other districts have had to give in on before.

The economy is bad and because of union contracts many teachers did not see the pay cuts that private sectors saw. It is, in my opinion, unrealistic to expect large percentage raises. I don't think it is fair to expect teachers to give back anything financially though, since districts weren't lavishing extra money on teachers when times were good, they shouldn't be pulling away from teachers when times are bad.

[rlyndecker]

Like I said if we hadn't already taken the furlough days & then had 3 of them added back this year (w/o increasing our pay) and if our insurance wasn't the highest by far of any district around maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

The fact that they just got ANOTHER bond approved (3 years before this, they "found" missing Bond money so I was quite surprised that last year they not only asked for another Bond but it was approved!) and then the fact that they are sitting on 18% when everyone else has 3% maybe these things wouldn't be so bad.

We are the "richest" district in my area but the WORST with benefits/rights etc. (And yes, I have compared within my city and a couple in other cities).